"Anti-Hacking Laws," E-How, 7/18/2011, no editiorial changes

Hacking is a very new crime. Most Americans had no idea of it before the late 1970s, and even now many may find themselves at a loss to understand the nature of this activity. State governments and the federal government have, however, passed a series of laws dealing with hacking in its many forms, from mere Internet vandalism to cyber-espionage, and modern citizens may want to learn the nature of these laws to understand their effects on their lives.

Laws Against Preparing to Hack

Wisconsin and other states include deceptive or threatening email as a form of hacking, and this practice may be for practical reasons. Given hackers' habit of using social manipulation as a means of penetrating security systems and cyberspies' use of email for the same purpose, hackers are at least liable to use threats or other forms of persuasion to gain footholds into a computer system, and email would be a likely means for a cybercriminal to communicate with intended social targets. Wisconsin's law tries to give law enforcement a means to prosecute any sender of deceptive or threatening email by outlawing such things as simply hiding his identity online.

Intent as a Factor

In the majority of laws against accessing a nongovernmental computer system intended to be secure, the federal government stipulates intent as a necessary precondition to guilt, as reflected on the Cornell Law School website. Making intent a necessary factor for guilt, however, is a two-edged sword. On one hand, doing so leaves a net enthusiast free from prosecution for accidentally entering even the most sensitive databases of any company, but it also leaves the government free to charge hackers assuming a cover from even simply altering their equipment or attempting to enter a secure database.

Cyber-Espionage

The U.S. government claims jurisdiction for a hack targeted at any computer within the U.S., regardless of its country of origin. Given the nature of both hacking and espionage as the dissemination of false information or the illegal acquisition of information, this extension would include the attempts of foreign governments to enter secure American systems. Current laws against cyberspying, however, also include the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, a prohibition against foreign governments specifically gathering information affecting the quality or distribution of their products and services. Even before the development of the Internet, however, the federal government had laws against interfering in its private communications, and some of these may still be applicable to current cybercrime.

Punishment

A first-time hacker, even after a failed attempt to gain information from a protected system, may face a sentence of up to 10 years and a possible fine. Hacking to support other crimes or after a prior conviction can double the penalty, and hacking in aid of an act of domestic terrorism can triple it. In any case of hacking, the hacker will have to forfeit all property used in or derived from the hack, including money and equipment.